Pope Arrives in Benin - To Shake Down the Ingnorant and Uneducated

With the fortunes of the Roman Catholic Church plummeting in the educated developed world, God's Rottweiler, Benedict XVI has traveled to the African nation of Benin to sell some of the Church's snake oil to those not educated enough to realize that they are being courted by a morally bankrupt monster who has been personally implicated in cover up of the sexual abuse of children and minors. The Johannesburg Times notes the Pope's visit here and recognizes that Africa is the Catholic Church's main area of growth:

Africa is the Roman Catholic Church's fastest-growing region despite revelations of sex abuse and corruption scandals that have shaken followers in Europe.

But the sex abuse scandal isn't limited to the developed western world. Another Johannesburg Times article looks at the all too familiar pattern of sexual abuse and cover up that is widespread in Africa as well. Here are highlights:

The continent has the world's fastest growing number of Catholics --rising by eight million between 2007 and 2008 alone -- and often sends its dynamic priests to work in increasingly deserted churches across the secularised West.

But the African Church is also riddled with scandals, from child abuse to extramarital relations, collusion with those in power, and ill-gotten fortunes.

African priests have also been known on occasion to be involved with practices that do not sit happily with the Catholic Church -- from exorcism or animal sacrifices to Freemasonry.

In Benin alone, two bishops -- including the Archbishop of Cotonou Marcel Honorat Agboton -- have been dismissed for sex and corruption scandals.

Benedict's first visit to Africa in 2009 was overshadowed by a controversial comment when he said the distribution of condoms "aggravates" the AIDS crisis and spoke of sexual abstinence as the only solution.

One can only hope that as the targeted population becomes more educated it will realize that they've been sold a corrupt and fraudulent bill of goods. In the meantime, I'm sure Benedict XVI and his henchmen want to rake in as much money and add as many names as possible to the Church's membership roster so that an overall decline in the Church can be disguised and hidden - at least for now.